environmental geography
north americans have transformed the land
-wheat, cattle, horses are not native, but produced
U.S. is the third largest consumer of water
- china #1, india #2
- US city dwellers consume 175 gallons daily
-drinking, cooking, showers,....
-water quality is becoming a problem.

Air modification (pollution)
-sources indistries, utilities, automobiles
Acid rain
-formed when sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide get into the water system.
-damages forests, poisons lakes, kills fish, erodes stonework.

Population and Settlement
-in 1492 columbus sailed the ocean blue
-before tat indigenous people lived in the americas. due to lack of written records estimates cary widely
-your texts says 3.2 mill. in US plus 1.2 mill. in Canada
1491: new revelations of the americas before columbus says 90 to 112 mill. including south america
in any case, 95% of them died after the europeas arrived (warfare and disease, especially smallpox)

noted from 11/10/09-11/11/09

Canada and the U.S. is in North America
Highly mobile- the population moves around a lot
Megalopolis- area containing large cities
Incredibly culturally diverse, people have come from all over the world to come into this country.
Economic diversity - we can make money in many different ways

Population and settlement-
People usually move because of job opportunities
They move from rural to urban
Urban communities have more job opportunities.
Over all population is growing
People were living here before the Europeans showed up but what happened when the Europeans came?

Cuteral coherence and diversity-
spanish speaking immigrants are making a huge difference
everybody is welcome here,
everybody brings there cultures here and is free to live there lives
in the 1900s nearly 100 million foreigners entered the united states anually.
most of the population lives west os the mississippi river.

economic and social development:
north america has a lot of resources
we have a lot of stuff that many countries would love to have

the Region-
U.S. and Canada
335 mill. people
culterally diverse
rich in natural resources
Ultra globalized
the last remaining global superpower (U.S.)- we could take over every country in the world

Cultural Coherence and Diversity

Cultural Coherence and Diversity

            In our world today, 43 million immigrants are living in the United States.  Having 43 million immigrants in our country means that cultural pluralism remains strong.  Many of the careers here probably have many foreign people working for them.  When you walk down the street in the suburbs, everywhere you look you will probably see and hear Hispanics, Asians, and many other people.  We wouldn’t have as many people and also as many jobs if we didn’t have as much immigrants pouring into our country today.

            In the United States, the net migration rate is 4.0, which is fairly high.  By the 1900s immigration started to peak at about 800,500 people annually, but by the mid 1930s things slowed down because of World War II.  After World War II, immigration surged back up to 900,000 people annually.  Between the 1920 and 1970 most immigrants came from Canada and Latin America.  Today, Asia and Africa have the most people pouring into the United States.  About 11% of Mexico’s population now lives in the United States.           

            In conclusion, the net migration rate is continuing to rise and most likely will not decrease.  Our nation is the fifth Spanish speaking country in the world and I wouldn’t be surprised if we ever become the third in the next decade or two because of our neighbor, Latin America.  Many of the Latin Americans come into our country having Spanish as their only language and by the time they have kids and their kids go to school their second language will be English.  Our nation is very unique from others, but there are many other countries having their net migration rates rise.  We aren’t alone.